Post-loss practice gets back to basics
MacLean runs breakout drills for entire session
Breakout. Rinse. Repeat. Breakout. Rinse. Repeat.
The Ottawa Senators’ 41-minute practice Wednesday, with Tuesday’s embarrassing 5-0 home ice loss to the Philadelphia Flyers in the rearview mirror, was devoted to one thing. And one thing only.
“The games that we struggle in, we don’t get out of our own end,” said coach Paul MacLean. “A lot of that has to do with the opposition’s energy and their forecheck and the way they come after us, but it’s also on us that we don’t execute with the puck or make the right play or the right reads.
“Lots of time we have people in the right spots and we don’t find them. So, we’re not talking or we’re not listening or we’re lying to one another and say we’re talking and listening, so those are issues that we have when we don’t play well.”
The relatively quick one-drill workout surprised many observers, given old-school thinking would have produced a lengthy workout full of endless skating drills following the embarrassing home ice thumping.
MacLean dismissed that approach, claiming the club was better served by focusing on one of its most glaring weakness — many of their sky-high total of 20 turnovers Tuesday came inside their own blueline — than in punishing players.
“I don’t find that in this day and age ...” MacLean began. “Why? Would that make me feel better going home? It’s not about that. It’s about finding the solution to play. Is it acceptable to play the way we did last night? No. We’ve addressed that. We don’t have to line up on the boards and go back and forth and go to Wally World and go up the lines to prove a point. We’re all big enough that we can discuss it and get that sorted out. Just making me feel better because we skated them? That’s old.”
As it turns out, MacLean did offer a different sort of crystal clear message.
It’s no great secret that the wellstructured Boston Bruins, who visit the Canadian Tire Centre on Friday, typically feast on teams that don’t play fundamentally sound hockey. At the very least, MacLean is hoping some muscle memory will kick in so that the Senators can avoid being embarrassed yet again.
“It gave us a lot of time to work on what we needed to work on,” said captain Jason Spezza. “It may be tedious to watch or be part of at times, but (Wednesday), it was needed.”
Spezza acknowledges that never before has been part of a one-drillonly practice, but he says a workout without pucks would have been counterproductive.
“It wasn’t a practice to punish us, it was a practice to teach us. Our effort hasn’t been bad all year. Our execution has been bad at times. I think there’s a big difference there, and sometimes the line can get blurred and people think we’re not working hard enough.”
Don’t be fooled. MacLean and general manager Bryan Murray have serious concerns about whether the current roster is good enough to be competitive with the NHL’s best, or even whether the club has the talent to be a playoff team.
If the inconsistency continues, Murray will have little choice but to do something to move an additional body or two in, with others going out the door.
But the way Spezza sees it, the Senators have no chance at success unless they’re using their energy at the other end of the ice.
“If you can break out clean, you’re playing less in your defensive zone, and, in turn, you have the puck more and you’re attacking more,” he said. “It’s hard to gain momentum when you spend so much time in your own zone.”